Ex-king defeats former lover in court after winning $154 million lawsuit

Juan Carlos I of Spain was charged of eavesdropping on and threatening a Danish entrepreneur.

An ex-lover’s $154 million lawsuit was successfully dismissed by the former Spanish King Juan Carlos I in a British court. The woman alleged that the deposed monarch harassed her at home and attempted to engage her in a tax evasion scheme.

Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn, a Danish businesswoman with whom Juan Carlos had an affair between 2004 and 2009, filed a lawsuit against him. Sayn-Wittgenstein alleged that the former king gave her a gift of $68 million in 2012 to conceal the amount from tax authorities and turned violent when she refused to give him access to the cash.

Juan Carlos allegedly then had Sayn-Wittgenstein’s phone monitored, hired assassins to fire at the CCTV cameras in front of her house, and had a book claiming that British intelligence operatives assassinated Princess Diana planted inside the building as a warning. Sayn-Wittgenstein sued her ex-partner for $154 million in damages.

Sayn-Wittgenstein’s attempt to prove that she was harassed on British soil was unsuccessful, according to Justice Rowena Collins Rice, who dismissed the case at London’s High Court on Friday. Additionally, the judge ruled that Juan Carlos could not be sued in the UK because he resided in the United Arab Emirates.

A representative for Juan Carlos, who maintains that he never harassed Sayn-Wittgenstein, claimed that Friday’s decision “unexpectedly confirms his innocence.” Sayn-Wittgenstein stated that the ruling left her “deeply disappointed” and that she is now thinking about her other legal alternatives.

Juan Carlos has weathered a number of problems since leaving the throne in 2014, including the harassment case. The monarch gave power to his son, Prince Felipe, despite a drop in public favorability and protests over an extravagant elephant hunting expedition to Botswana.

After a corruption inquiry was launched against him in 2020, Juan Carlos escaped Spain and moved to Abu Dhabi. Following that, both this investigation and one involving his alleged use of credit cards connected to overseas bank accounts were closed. In 2021, the former king paid the Spanish government $4.9 million to end another tax fraud inquiry.

Even though Juan Carlos has frequently visited Spain since 2014 to compete in sailing events, the harassment lawsuit’s dismissal puts an end to the last legal issue against him and opens the door for his return to public life.

His spokeswoman said in a statement that today’s decision, which was in His Majesty’s favour, “re-establishes the conditions necessary for further public appearances.”